This invention was discovered and identified at the University of Hawaii's Lalamilo Research Farm in Kamuela. This research site is located on the north side of the island of Hawaii in the Kohala District at an elevation of 3,000 feet, which receives less than 20″ of annual rainfall. It was selected in January 1999 as a seedling from the open pollination of a naturalized/local land race and coded as Breeding Line No. H99-47. It was initially selected as a 1.0 inch seedling, transferred to a small pot, and subsequently propagated asexually. It is one of a number of genotypes that were selected and/or collected in the region and initially screened for horticultural appearance. As H99-47 was advanced through the selection process, it was evaluated and compared to the standard commercial varieties for a number of traits presented herein, and ultimately received the proposed name ‘Aloha’. Over a five year research and testing period in Florida ‘Aloha’ was propagated numerous times and has remained uniform and genetically consistent. The denomination of this new invention in ‘Aloha’.
The distinctness of ‘Aloha’ from ‘Sea Isle 1’, ‘Sea Dwarf’ (SDX-1), and other Seashore Paspalum varieties is based on four sets of traits including; 1) floral morphology; 2) leaf and stolon morphology' 3) rate of growth and cover; and 4) insect resistance.
For the purpose of registration under the “International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants” (generally known by its French acronym UPOV Convention) and noting Sections 1612 of the Manual of Patent Examination Procedures this new variety of Seashore Paspalum of the present invention is named ‘Aloha’.